How to stop being a slave to your business

Hi, I'm Howard Partridge. I'm originally from L.A. (Lower Alabama!). I grew up very poor in Mobile, Alabama and there were 7 kids living in a little 600 square foot shack. The roof was so bad on that house that when it rained we had to get out all the pots and pans to catch the leaks! At one point, we lived on a hundred dollars a month from the welfare department. I don't know how my mother did it. I still remember getting Christmas presents from the social workers. When I was 18 years old, I got in a fight with my step dad and got kicked out of the house. I had NO money and a friend helped me scrape up enough for a Greyhound bus ticket to Houston. My real dad (who I had only met twice in my entire life) lived there.

Eventually I became a professional waiter. I worked in these restaurants where we did table side cooking… Steak Diane, Bananas Foster, Caesar Salad – all made from scratch at the table, wearing a tuxedo. But I always wanted my own business. I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. But I still had no money!

Now that's Italian! While in New Jersey a friend of the family was tooling around in a little red Mercedes convertible. He was my age (23 at the time). I wanted to know what he did, and I wanted to know if it was legal! I discovered that he owned his own business. When you marry into an Italian family, instead of getting wedding presents like toasters, blenders or a set of dishes, you get cash! We got $3,000.00 in wedding money. As soon as we got back to Houston, I spent that money on starting my own business. My wife was really thrilled about that, let me tell you!!! That's when I started my first company out of the trunk of my car. That was over 29 years ago. November 2nd 1984 to be exact.

Over 13 long years, I got the company up to doing about $30k per month. I was making good money, but I became a slave to my business. If something had to be fixed "I" had to be involved in it. If a client had a question "I" had to be involved in it. I had a stack of client inquiries on my desk that I couldn't get to. People who wanted to spend money with us, but I couldn't get to them. When I finally called them, I got their voice mail. When they returned my call, they got my voice mail.

That was 1997. I began learning about this thing called "systems" and a thing called a "turn-key" business, and working "on" the business instead of "in" it. I found out about Michael Gerber's book The E-Myth Revisited. I took a week off and went to my favorite place in the world – Destin, Florida and sat on the beach with The E-Myth and a stack of spiral notebooks. I re-designed my business and my life. I then invited two fellow business owners to become partners. We built systems in the business and I implemented my marketing system.

Since that time, my first business exploded to over $3 Million Per Year and I've owned 9 small businesses altogether. Today I have four. The best part is that my companies are turn-key and I can pursue the lifestyle that I want and reap the benefits of being a business owner rather than being a slave to one. Don't get me wrong, you must work hard to build your business, but if you build it right, it can deliver on some of those life goals you have.

What's more important than my "business success" is that I have helped thousands of small business owners just like you build phenomenal companies. Many of them are realizing their dreams in life and are making more money as a result of implementing my unique, proven methods and staying connected with my programs to stay on the cutting edge.